NEW YORK — Through just about every shift of 900 wins, through a national championship, into the Basketball Hall of Fame and by all means into Madison Square Garden Saturday, Syracuse basketball Jim Boeheim had one defensive strategy.

For that, Fran Dunphy would counter with one point guard.

And for that — for the way Khalif Wyatt controlled the Temple tempo against Bohheim’s 2-3 zone — Temple did Saturday what has become its habit. For the fifth time in as many years, while unranked at the time, the Owls defeated a Top 10 team, topping the No. 3 Orangemen, 83-79, in the feature game of the Gotham Classic.

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Wyatt, the senior from Norristown High, shot 8-for-17 from the field and 15-for-15 from the line for 33 points. And while he did mix in five turnovers, few, if any, were while calmly, expertly directing a precision Temple offense from the top of the key.

“He showed great patience,” Dunphy said. “He’s soooo good. And he’s soooo talented. His I.Q. is off the charts — off … the … charts. He knows where to go with the ball. He has great poise and a sense of the game. And he has that fearlessness when he goes to the line. To make all 15 foul shots, that’s impressive.

“But I am not surprised.”

Dunphy was not surprised by his senior guard, but the final score was something of a shock to the assembled 12,648. For in the Owls’ previous game in the Gotham Classic, they lost at home, 72-62, to Canisius. In that game, they were guilty of quick-shooting and other basketball indiscretions that would have been damaging Saturday.

But just as Dunphy would prescribe patience to defeat Syracuse, which entered at 10-0, so would he prescribe it as a salve for the loss to Canisius.

“We got a little bit of a comeuppance against Canisius,” he said. “They played better than we did. They deserved to win the game. But I think our kids understood the task at hand today.”

That task would be two-pronged. One, the Owls would have to withstand the physical inside presence of the Orange. That, 6-9 sophomore Anthony Lee best assured by collecting nine rebounds and a career-high 21 points. But once the game settled, it required precise ball-movement, diligence in sending a player into the middle, a willingness to kick out and, of course, the timely three-point shot.

At that, the 9-2 Owls were at their best in an 11-3 run that turned a 59-59 tie into a 70-62 lead with 7:51 left. During it, Scootie Randall supplied two three-pointers, and Quenton DeCosey added another. Overall, the Owls would make eight three-point shots to Syracuse’s two --- and would shoot 29-for-36 from the line as the Orange went 19-for-34.

All of which left Boeheim 900 wins short of his second career 900 wins.

“We have to shoot the ball better from the free-throw line,” Boeheim said. “That was the ballgame.”

In the most rudimentary analysis, Boeheim was correct. The Owls shot better from the line. But they also outrebounded Syracuse, 44-40, and had the patience to recover from a nine-point first-half deficit.

“They are really long,” Wyatt said. “So you have to be patient. Because if you rush shots, they are going to run out and get fast break points. So you just want to be patient, try to get the ball in the middle, and try to make good decisions. We had a couple turnovers, but they are going to force turnovers, just because they are long.

“We had to be patient, and the key is making shots. And we made a couple shots today.”

Randall, Wyatt and Jake O’Brien each contributed two three-pointers, and former Chester High All-Delco Rhalir Hollis-Jefferson contributed a team-high 10 rebounds and some classic high-post pivot passing.

C.J. Fair topped Syracuse with 25. Brandon Triche added 17.

“Today, just being in Madison Square Garden, and all those aspects,” Lee said, “really contributed to how we played.”

Syracuse is about to leave the Big East, Temple about to enter. At the minimum Saturday, the Owls represented the Atlantic 10 nicely in that spinning door.

“The win was tremendous for us today,” Dunphy said. “But we have been here before. We have won some big games in November and December. But we have a big league schedule coming up. Before that, we have three non-league games. Every game is so critical in your development.

“But the reality is, I don’t know that we would have won today had we not lost on Wednesday.”